Tag: ECW

The World Wrestling Federation needs to, now, commission a study of why they and wrestling in general are losing the over-30 audience so rapidly. This goes against the company thought process, because despite what may be said publicly, the company’s target age group and strongest demo per capita is Males 12-24. However, the age group that is losing interest in wrestling the fastest is those over the age of 30, who make up the vast majority television viewership for most programs (average viewership age of most network hit shows is early 40s), and are traditionally the most loyal fans.

When wrestling peaked in late 1998 and early 1999, there were just under six million viewers over the age of 30 watching every Monday night. At that point, WWF was winning the ratings, but within that age group, WCW had a slight lead and it was still a dogfight for that group as late as 2000.

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The actual purchase price of World Championship Wrestling from Time Warner was $2.5 million according to figures released this week by WWFE in its annual Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Much of the material in the report just broke down in more detail the previous annual earnings report released by the company (7/9 Observer, which reported the total expense of the purchase at less than $4.5 million). But in breaking things down into more detail, WWFE listed $2.5 million at the purchase price for the trademarks, some contracts and videotape library of WCW and another $1.8 million in costs to the company in the negotiations.

The WWF actually spent less money on buying their rivals than the $2.9 million it spent on an NHRA race car or the money it spent annually just for the travel of the inner circle to and from television tapings in the private jet.

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One of the most amazing weeks in pro wrestling history saw the World Wrestling Federation abandon nearly all its plans and re-create Extreme Championship Wrestling from the ashes in a story that, truth be told, in hindsight looks like the single greatest case of manipulation in the modern history of pro wrestling.

The formation of ECW was decided upon, although there were moves and hints to do so for some time, late last week after the realization that the current plans as they were laid out were going to be a disaster due to the reaction to the so-called WCW matches at last week’s television tapings in Tacoma.

The basic plan, much of which has been outlined here for weeks, was for WCW to get a few weeks of television exposure building a feud with WWF for a series of interpromotional matches at the 7/22 Invasion PPV in Cleveland. It would be a one-time deal and the feud would end with the PPV.

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There are many questions, and few answers, as it regards the future of World Championship Wrestling.

At press time, eerily similar to ECW just two plus months ago, there are only three shows remaining on the books, the Greed PPV show on 3/18 in Jacksonville, Nitro the next night in Gainesville, FL and the annual Spring Breakout Nitro on 3/26 in Panama City, FL.

Everything else is speculation. There are no shows scheduled for April and nobody seems to have an answer as to what will air in the wrestling time slots on Monday and Wednesday night on TNT and TBS. While there were plans for a 5/6 PPV show from Las Vegas and at one point Eric Bischoff was targeting that show as a major spectacular bringing in a lot of new talent, all previous target dates have been changed because the sale hasn’t gone through and Bischoff doesn’t have the full power to execute his plans and make his changes.

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We are clearly in a transitional period for pro wrestling in the United States, and a dangerous transition at that.

The big stories of the first few months of 2001 were the chickens coming home to roost of the huge money losses of 2000–the official folding and impending bankruptcy of ECW, which may be announced before you read this but even if it hasn’t been is an inevitability, and the sale of WCW, which may not be exactly smooth sailing but is still expected to go through. Even if the sale goes through before you read this (and it appears it will be at the earliest a week or so later), it leaves a world of question marks for its future. And like while following the fortunes of ECW and WCW last year, the questions, like for virtually the last year, really aren’t about now. They are about one year from now and where this business is headed if and when it stabilizes..

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After nearly a full year of various rumors, negotiations, and several near finalized deals, the sale of World Championship Wrestling by Time Warner to Fusient Media Ventures was officially announced on 1/11, literally hours before the announcement that the final step of the Time Warner/AOL merger had been cleared.

Fusient Media Ventures, a one-year-old company headed by Brian Bedol and Stephen Greenberg, who are best known for starting up the Classic Sports Network, and then selling it to ESPN where it became ESPN Classics, for $175 million, is the parent company. The company, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is an incubator type company that raises capital for media investments. The actual sale is expected to go through in 30 to 60 days, at which point the names of the various investors will likely be revealed. Change is expected to be gradual until the time the sale is finalized. Nevertheless, even days later, it was clear there was a greater emphasis placed on the cruiserweight division and on having a strong in-ring product with less run-ins, tables, garbage matches, and elimination of swearing as wrestlers were told specifically words like damn, hell and ass are no longer to be uttered on broadcasts.

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Citing a number of factors, including the enormous pressure he’s been under over the past year, the large company debt and what he sees as the future landscape of the business, Paul Heyman said he was in serious negotiations to sell either a majority share or all of Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Heyman, who said his views have changed greatly over the past three months, said that he’s recognized the company, at the size it currently is or even in the shape it was, couldn’t survive the rapidly changing pro wrestling landscape, saying it’s a world of big boys and the independent operator simply can’t compete.

Heyman, who had talked as recently as a few weeks ago about scaling down the company, cutting back on payroll and running a regional promotion, said the economics of doing what would amount to old-school territorial wrestling don’t work today because of the rising costs of television.

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For a year that, with the exception of the success of the WWF, was hardly a banner year for the business, there is actually no shortage of candidates for Wrestler of the Year.

The Observer awards balloting results will be announced here in two weeks, but before hand, I wanted to run down a list of the top qualifiers with my own comments on them.

Kurt Angle – Angle finished an incredible year as the WWF champion and arguably the most improved performer both in and out of the ring in the industry. It was only November of 1999 when Angle debuted on WWF television, playing the geeky 70s babyface role that is more of a heel today, with his only wrestling experience in Memphis where he was a strong rookie in the ring, but they actually often gave him a manager (Brandon Baxter) to do his interviews, which were considered a weakness.

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